Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A stupid person; a dolt.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Alternative spelling of dumdum.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Reduplication and alteration of dumb.]

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Examples

  • Ballistics experts say the so-called "dum-dum" bullets also are lighter in weight and can be fired with greater accuracy over varying distances.

    chron.com Chronicle 2011

  • Ballistics experts say the so-called dum-dum bullets also are lighter in weight and can be fired with greater accuracy over varying distances.

    chron.com Chronicle 2011

  • Ballistics experts say the so-called "dum-dum" bullets also are lighter in weight and can be fired with greater accuracy over varying distances.

    Yahoo! News: Business - Opinion 2011

  • In the northland such commands are equal to Jehovah's in the matter of potency; the dum-dum as rapid and effective as the thunderbolt.

    A DAUGHTER OF THE AURORA 2010

  • In Kenya, an enraged Mau-Mau had speared her mama, Mimi, with a tse-tse fly; and in the jungles of Pago Pago, a dum-dum shell to the back of the head had sent her papa, Pepe, to the promised land.

    David Macaray: Double Agents David Macaray 2011

  • A doctor treating victims told The Associated Press the gunman used illegal "dum-dum"-style bullets designed to disintegrate inside the body and cause maximum internal damage.

    Norway rampage culprit calm, held in isolation 2011

  • A doctor treating victims told The Associated Press that the gunman used illegal "dum-dum"-style bullets bullets designed to disintegrate inside the body and cause maximum internal damage.

    Anders Behring Breivik, Norway Mass Killer, Pleads Not Guilty 2011

  • Even if there are precious exceptions, the overwhelming number of big-money, industry-sustaining books are incontrovertibly dum-dum things.

    Boycott Books! 2009

  • Tudor was notching his steel-jacketed bullets, or cutting them blunt, so that they would spread on striking -- in short, he was making them into the vicious dum-dum prohibited in modern warfare.

    Chapter 27 2010

  • In Kenya, an enraged Mau-Mau had speared her mama, Mimi, with a tse-tse fly; and in the jungles of Pago Pago, a dum-dum shell to the back of the head had sent her papa, Pepe, to the promised land.

    David Macaray: Double Agents David Macaray 2011

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